Stone Reader

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All Rise...

The Charge

The film that brought a great American novel back to life.

Opening Statement

In 1972, critic John Seelye wrote the following of The Stones of
Summer, a newly-published work by first-time novelist Dow Mossman:

"The Stones of Summer cannot possibly be called a promising
first novel for the simple reason that it is such a marvelous achievement that
it puts forth much more than mere promise. Fulfillment is perhaps the best word,
fulfillment at the first stroke, which is so often the sign of superior talent
and which is also a frightening thing, for the author may remain forever awed by
the force and witness of his first production. I don't think, however, that this
will happen in the present instance. Dow Mossman's novel is a whole river of
words fed by a torrential imagination and such a source is not likely to stop
flowing."

Seelye's words would prove sadly ironic.

Facts of the Case

In 1972, Mark Moskowitz, then 18, read John Seelye's review of The Stones
of Summer in The New York Times Book Review and immediately went out
and bought a copy. Less than a hundred pages into the tome, he bogged down in
the dense prose and gave up. Then, in 1998, Moskowitz plucked the yellowed
paperback from his crowded shelves and gave it another pass. This time, it
struck a chord; this time he saw what Seelye's fussing had been about. Once done
with the book, and still hungry for Mossman's prose, Moskowitz hit Amazon.com to
find out what the writer had produced in the years between 1972 and 1998. He
found nothing. Internet searches led to quick dead-ends. Moskowitz's
friends—most of them voracious readers—had never heard of Mossman or
The Stones of Summer.

Moskowitz determined to find out what had happened to the writer, why a
sophomore effort had never arrived. Since he's a producer of political
advertisements by trade, he grabbed a 16-mm camera to capture his hunt for
posterity. The result was Stone Reader.

The Evidence

Stone Reader is one part literary mystery, one part examination of the
surprisingly common phenomenon of the single book author, and one part Moskowitz
autobiography. Sound disjointed? It's not, because in the end, it all adds up to
a collective meditation on the joys of reading by a group of people (Moskowitz
and his interviewees) deeply in love with literature. While the film got mostly
glowing reviews during its parade through the festival circuit and limited
theatrical run, some of the write-ups were tinged with frustration at its
lackadaisical approach to solving its central mystery, the fate, both literary
and personal, of Dow Mossman. Stone Reader does indeed take a zigzagging
path toward its final revelation, in part because Moskowitz carried out his
quest in fits and starts between his more immediate responsibilities in the
world of political advertising, but also because of his appropriately literary
approach to the search.

Somewhere in the middle of the movie, Moskowitz arrives at the point where I
would have begun my search. He goes to the campus of the University of
Iowa, where Dow Mossman attended the famed Writers' Workshop, and is able to get
his hands on the writer's thesis as well as boxes of draft manuscripts and other
notes produced during the long writing of The Stones of Summer. It's a
logical first step in trying to find an author who wrote one book, published
nearly 30 years earlier, then disappeared, but it takes nearly an hour of film
narrative for Moskowitz to get there. Stone Reader, you see, isn't solely
interested in Mossman's fate. It also seeks to reflect on the human experiences
of reading and writing, the consumption and production of literature.

As such, the film unfolds as a series of conversations about Mossman and
The Stones of Summer, but also about other books and literature in
general. Moskowitz begins with conversations with personal friends and
acquaintances who are either lifelong readers or have some connection to the
literary or publishing worlds. He moves on to subjects like literary theorist
Leslie Fiedler, who has much insight into the production of literature and the
toll it might take on a first-time writer, but has no specific knowledge of
Mossman. Then, Moskowitz talks to writers Frank Conroy and Bruce Dobler, who
attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the same time as Mossman and are familiar
with the environment in which The Stones of Summer was written, but have
no memory of their fellow student or his novel. Eventually, the researcher
arrives at Bill Murray, the instructor who worked intimately with Mossman during
the writing of Stones. In effect, the search starts quite subjectively in
Moskowitz's small circle of influence, moves outward into the world of
professional writers and literary heavyweights, and narrows again to the tiny
circle of people with a direct connection to Mossman and his novel. It's an
inefficient way to investigate a mystery, but one that yields added insights
into just how human the creative literary process is.

Great books don't just happen; they're shepherded and championed and born of
messy interactions between groups of people with varying degrees of attachment
and loyalty to the work. One of the interview subjects in the middle of the film
is Robert Gottlieb, who edited Joseph Heller's Catch 22, a novel that
inspired a tenacious loyalty among its editors, which in turn made possible a
tenacious loyalty among readers, elevating the novel to the monster classic that
it is today. Heller, then, is a sort of anti-Dow Mossman, a gifted writer whose
work is remembered and cherished. The insight Stone Reader offers is that
it isn't talent that separates Heller and Mossman, but a series of human-driven
circumstances that no one controls and no one can fully explain. The widespread
recognition of a book's greatness isn't solely dependent on its intrinsic
artistic value. As the film demonstrates, so many other factors come into play
one feels lucky that more of our great literary classics weren't lost. It also
makes one wonder how many superlative pieces of literature might be lurking out
there, forgotten.

New Yorker Films' two-disc release of Stone Reader is impressive, to
say the least. The feature is offered in 1.78:1 anamorphically enhanced
widescreen, and the transfer is limited only by the source. Some shots show a
fair amount of grain, but overall the image is clean and surprisingly crisp
considering the feature was shot on 16 mm. The Dolby Stereo audio is sufficient,
given that the soundtrack consists of dialogue and a minimalist acoustic guitar
score. It's hard to imagine it could be made to sound better. There are no
subtitles.

Extras on the first disc include a commentary by Mark Moskowitz. One would
think a commentary on a documentary feature could become redundant pretty
quickly, but this one is quite engaging. I'll say no more about the track's
content since the picture is part mystery story, and I don't want to ruin the
experience for anyone. Also on Disc One is an Other Books extra that
features bibliographies for the participants in the film, as well as some
recommended reading lists.

Disc Two has a wealth of featurettes that include: additional interview
footage cut from the film; new interview footage shot after the film's
completion (including a segment with Betty Kelly, an editor at Bobbs-Merrill in
the 1970s who worked closely with Mossman on The Stones of Summer); a
35-minute follow-up segment that discusses reactions to the film and the second
printing of The Stones of Summer; the reactions of writers A.S. Byatt and
Toni Morrison to the film; footage of Stone Reader's exhibition at Roger
Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival; and more. Like the feature itself, the extras
are sometimes about Mossman and his novel, and sometimes about books and reading
in general. Together, they make a wonderful, comprehensive two-disc set (a
Limited Edition three-disc set is available from the official Stone
Reader website, but it's hard to imagine one could need more than what's
offered on this jam-packed two-disc set).

The Rebuttal Witnesses

But, you might ask, what about The Stones of Summer? Is it worth all
this fuss? Did it really deserve a literary resurrection?

I'm currently reading it and, so far, I'd give it a thumbs-up. I also
understand why the 18-year-old Moskowitz gave up on it. The book is long and
dense (too long, unfortunately, for me to read it in its entirety before
completing this review). Its vivid imagery continually slides back and forth
between the concrete and the evocative. The specificity of its detail and the
idiosyncrasies of its construction can be daunting. But its voice is confident
and sure, and its themes universal. It's a sprawling, complex work like Joyce's
Ulysses, Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Lowry's Under the
Volcano, DeLillo's Underworld, or Infinite Jest by David
Foster Wallace, none of which are famous for making things easy for their
readers. Be prepared to work a little if you pick up The Stones of
Summer.

Some of my favorite books, though, are the ones I've had to wrestle with a
bit, and maybe, just maybe, when I've come to the last page, I'll be able to add
The Stones of Summer to that list. The jury's still out on that one.

Closing Statement

The jury's not out on Stone Reader, however. If you're a lover of
books, it's not to be missed. If you're a dispassionate reader, you might still
give it a try…who knows, maybe it'll change your mind about the singular
joys of reading.